Decisions
by xMackAttack
Summary: When Misty disappears, Ash has to find her and make some tough choices involving his friends. AshxMisty


**Hey everyone! So this is my first fanfic... EVER. So I'm sorry it's kinda bad and the characters are OOC. I hope you like it anyway! (Just a Oneshot). Oh yes... None of these characters belong to me. Just the story. ^ ^**

**

* * *

**

"You know, Ash," Misty stated with an uninterested smile, "you don't have to train so hard all the time. Take a break!" She had been watching Ash and Pikachu practicing some attacks for almost an hour while waiting for Brock to make lunch.

"I can't!" Ash replied excitedly. "We're only two days away from reaching my next gym battle and we need to be ready! Right, Pikachu?" Pikachu just looked at Ash and, between taking deep breaths, mumbled a stubborn, "Chuuu…"

Misty stood up in a huff. "Well it's fine with me if you two want to work yourselves to exhaustion! I'm getting some lunch." And with that she stormed off through the woods in the direction of their camp.

Later that evening, the rumbling in his stomach became too loud to ignore, so Ash scooped up Pikachu onto his shoulder and trudged into the forest to find Brock for some dinner. He was about to enter the clearing where he remembered them setting up camp when Brock suddenly appeared in front of him and they collided. Ash tumbled backward and landed in the dirt.

"Owww," Ash complained rubbing his sore backside. "Oh hey Brock! What's for dinner?" Brock wasn't paying much attention to him, however. He appeared to be looking for something, but with Brock it was hard to tell since he never opened his eyes. "Brock?" Ash called up to him.

"Huh? Oh Ash! Sorry about that," he laughed apologetically, offering a hand to help Ash up. "I had lunch ready for all of us earlier, but you two never showed up! Seeing as it's dinner time, I was getting worried so I came to look for you guys."

Assuming that he meant himself and Pikachu, Ash just smiled as he stood up. "Yeah we were working really hard!"

Brock looked around again and seemed puzzled. "So then… where's Misty?" he asked.

Ash's eyes widened as he realized what was happening. "You mean she never came back? She left while Pikachu and I were training hours ago!" he explained, frantically.

Brock sighed. What could've happened to her? "Alright," he told Ash, "she's missing. We'll just have to find her!" And with that, they released their Pokémon and explained the situation. The bird Pokémon took to the skies while the others split up to search the woods. Ash fumbled with his flashlight as he tore through the woods with Pikachu.

"MISTY!" he yelled at the top of his voice. "MISTYYY!" There was no answer. Feeling afraid and distraught at the possibility of Misty being kidnapped, Ash ran faster and tripped over a tree root. With his face in the dirt, Ash looked up and noticed something bright red shining from behind a bush a little farther ahead. Even though his knees were bleeding, he dragged himself to his feet and rushed over the object. When he reached his destination, Ash found the strange thing to be a poke ball, sitting under a berry bush. Curiosity and hope overtaking his senses, Ash released the Pokémon inside. There was a glorious flash of blue light and Starmie burst out of the ball.

"Starmie!" Ash cried out in excitement. This Starmie could only belong to one person- Misty. Starmie, realizing it had been freed of its container, frantically began talking to Pikachu. Pikachu suddenly leapt from Ash's shoulders and situated Starmie on his back. With a look that said, "Follow me!" Pikachu bolted into the trees with Ash hot on his heels.

After about five minutes of running through the dark woods, the trio arrived at the edge of the tree line. Beyond was a clearing with a large building that lit up the entire area even though there were limited windows. The only ones were very high off the ground. Ash, not being one to think before he acts, rushed right into the clearing at top speed. Out of the shadows Ash heard rustling and then the sound of an angry, gruff voice that pierced the silence. It simply barked, "GET HIM!" Suddenly about twenty Team Rocket agents came flooding from the darkness on either side of the building and rushed towards Ash.

"Team Rocket! I should've known!" Initially Ash thought he could handle them all, but as they approached he quickly realized that he'd be no match for such a large group of strong agents. Turning his back, he fled into the trees to find some cover from the light so he could hide. Then an idea came to him. What if he ran around the building to the back and snuck in through another door where Team Rocket wouldn't notice him? Picking up Starmie and Pikachu, Ash hustled through the darkness, keeping a close eye out for anybody suspicious as he made his way around to the back of the building. There were no windows on the back wall, but only a single door with a light hanging over it.

As quietly as he could, Ash crept out of the woods and towards the door. Surprisingly nobody came rushing to attack him, and when he tried the rusty handle on the door, it opened without any resistance. The bolts creaked a bit so Ash opened the door quickly and hurried inside. As soon as he got inside he had to rub his eyes because the floodlights that illuminated the room in front of him were too bright after being outside. The wide, square room was painted white and was completely empty aside from a sleeping guard sitting on a chair in the corner across from the door. Directly in front of Ash was the only other door in the room, so he tiptoed over to it and peered through the rectangular window that sat in the middle of the dark wood. There were two floors beyond the window- the first was a large, open space with metal staircases on either side, and the second was simply a walkway that surrounded the interior of the building, giving a clear view of the first floor. Nobody could be seen on the first floor so Ash, being cautious not to wake the guard, turned the handle slowly and pulled open the door.

"Chuu!" Pikachu whispered anxiously. Ash gave him a reassuring pat on the head and continued on across the linoleum floor to one of the sets of stairs. Once on the second floor, Ash looked around at all the doors. All of them were identical so Ash had no clue which to try first. He had to find Misty no matter what, so he had to be careful which door he chose or he might get caught before he found her. Suddenly a piercing scream came from the door in one of the corners that made Ash's heart leap to three times the normal speed. Worried and anxious, Ash ran down the hall to the door and placed his hand on the knob. Before turning it, he took a deep breath and bit his lip. As he exhaled, he took his hand off the knob and, adrenaline pumping at full capacity, kicked the door down.

The first thing he saw was Misty, tied to a chair. Her lip was bleeding and she had bruises and cuts all over her arms and legs. Standing next to her was a tall man in a black suit who had his back turned to Ash along with two Team Rocket members on either side of her chair.

"A-ash!" Misty cried out. The two agents instinctively reached for the poke balls at their belts, but the man in the suit simply held up his hand in a signal for them to stop. Misty tugged at her bindings and yelled, "Ash, run!" Ash looked at her incredulously, but before he could make a retort, the man in the suit turned around and began speaking.

"Well hello, Ash! I knew you would come to try and save your precious friend, but I wasn't sure you'd be able to find us so I was interrogating the little wench. Lucky for her, you came," he declared, flashing an evil grin.

"How dare you hurt her! Let Misty go!" he yelled at the man. Unfortunately, the man just chuckled.

"Let her go for free? How about we make a trade instead?" His gaze moved to the yellow creature on Ash's shoulder. "I'll trade you your girlfriend for your Pikachu! That seems fair."

Ash's eyes widened. He couldn't just hand over his best friend to Team Rocket, but he also couldn't let the creeps keep Misty in their clutches. "N-" he started. "NEVER! I wont let you have Pikachu _or_ Misty!" He was about to reach for his poke balls to release his Pokémon and save Misty when the man whipped out something shiny from his pocket. He clicked a button on the side and a blade shot out of the handle. With a sly smile he held the flat side of the knife up to Misty's neck. Ash froze.

"Oh? Are you sure you wont accept my offer? I can get pretty angry when I don't get what I want," he purred. Misty's eyes widened and began to tear up, but she bit her lip angrily and closed her eyes.

"Don't listen to him, Ash! Just get out of here!" she ordered. "Go, Ash!" But Ash was frozen in place. The man laughed again.

"What's your answer, little man? If you don't decide soon, you'll get neither." Ash clenched his fists. What could he do? He'd have to hand over Pikachu. All of a sudden there was a jolt of energy that rushed through Ash before a terrible shock of electricity zapped through his body. The tall man was laughing heartily, but Ash was just confused. He looked at his partner and felt a pang of guilt before he lifted him off his shoulder and held him out to the man.

"Here, bastard. Here's Pikachu, so let Misty go!" Ash yelled angrily, feeling close to tears.

"Oho! Well I guess we know which creature is more important to you now," the man chuckled. "Very well, I am a man of my word. Release her," he commanded to the agent beside him, tossing the knife. The agent swiftly cut the ropes off Misty and shoved her out of the chair as the other agent took hold of Pikachu with shock resistant gloves. Misty stumbled over to Ash and slapped him across the face. "Misty, wha-" he questioned, but she cut him off with a spine-breaking hug and sobbed, "You idiot… moron…" He hugged her against him and proceeded to glare up the man before him.

"Stand back, Misty," he said, shoving her behind his scrawny figure. Then he pulled out all his poke balls and released all five of his remaining Pokémon. All of them appeared at once and aimed attacks at the man in the suit who began to sweat, getting nervous. "Give. Pikachu. Back," Ash emphasized each word with as much anger as he could muster.

The man ducked behind his two underlings and shouted in a trembling tone, "Get rid of them!" The two agents pulled out their poke balls and sent forth a Butterfree and a Ryhorn. However, they were no match for Ash's well-trained fighting team and soon they were defeated. The underlings dropped Pikachu, who ran back to Ash's side, and ran from the room.

"P-please!" the man pleaded, "I never meant any harm! Don't hurt me! You can go!"

Ash glared at him. "You kidnapped and _tortured_ Misty! And then you claim not to have meant any harm?" he howled as Misty clutched his shoulder. "Pikachu," he stated, turning to his partner once more, "thunderbolt." The man screamed as a huge flash of yellow light flooded the room with a static charge. "Good," Ash said, turning to face Misty. "Hey, Misty, are you alri-" Suddenly Misty collapsed into Ash's arms. Her body had taken too much strain and she had fainted. Ash sighed and scooped her up into his arms. "C'mon. Lets go tell Brock you're ok."

"Ash!" Brock yelled excitedly as he saw the two teens appear out of the trees and into their campsite. "What happened? Are you both ok?"

"We're fine," Ash said, stumbling into camp, clutching Misty tightly. Team Rocket had Misty and… well I'll explain later. I'm exhausted." Brock looked at Ash as he brought Misty to her tent to lay her down safely on her sleeping bag. Just as he rested her head on her pillow, she opened her eyes slowly.

Surprised, Ash stuttered, "Oh… I-I uh… Are you ok?"

Misty just smiled sweetly at him and replied, "Thank you." before pulling him into a short kiss. Then she turned over and closed her eyes again to rest. Ash smiled as he left her tent while Pikachu and Starmie just giggled and watched.

* * *

**So there it is! Do Pokemon giggle...? Anyway thank you if you read the whole thing! Please comment~ 3 I'd love to hear some thoughts!**


End file.
